Bioshock Review: Little Girls, Possessed Divers Suits and The Italian Mafia.
Over-the-top branding, cheesy smiles and hearty classical music. There’s something about revisiting the 40’s that still remains out of this world. Be it their belief in what today’s society would have been like or their taste in clothing, game developers seem fascinated with the retro look it provides. From the origin of the personal robot to the conceptualisation of a 50ft woman, the 40’s was where all the cool kids with the greasy hair were at. So it seems only fitting to revisit a time where ideas ranged from the plausible to the ridiculous and that anyone can make anything awesome. Bioshock is no different than any other game based in times of such lunacy. Since when, in any other time period, can a gargantuan possessed diving suit with a drill of all things attached to his hand that moans like a whale be plausible? Only in the 40’s of course.
It’s as if developers’ have an idea, but are not entirely sure what time period it should fit in. It can’t be in the present because we know what the present is like and what could be plausible. It can’t be in the future because it wouldn’t make sense to use something as encumbering as steel to use as a suit. “Just chuck it in the 40’s” some smart arse will say, because we all know what happened in the 40’s right? Wrong. There’s actually quite a bit we don’t know about the 40’s. I mean look at Wolfenstein, I never knew Hitler had chainguns for hands! It’s amazing what we can learn in games nowadays. Our history is rich with mysteries and if we don’t know what happened, why not invent the answers? Which adds a whole lot more depth than you’d think. No one knows what Nazi scientists were working on back in the day, so why not tell an interpretation of events with Wolfenstein? There’s nothing wrong with retelling history, plus, it’s more imaginative and restricting and if done well it creates an immersive experience. Which is why Bioshock is an interactive masterpiece.
So lets run a check list shall we? Bioshock, what gives it it’s unique feel? An underwater city to challenge Atlantis for the “Best City in the Atlantic” title? Check. Possessed diving suits and possessed little girls? Check. The Italian Mafia? Check. Yep, we’re in the 40’s. Although Bioshock is set in the 60’s, the underwater city of Rapture, built by the revolutionary Andrew Ryan, is locked in the 40’s. Created with the idea of housing the perfect society, a Utopia secluded beneath the waves, with a perfect society there’s always an asshole trying to ruin it; be it human nature or the Italian Mafia. Rapture was not only the conceptualised “perfect” society, but also the most unbound where “the artist need not fear the censor” and “the scientist need not fear petty morality”.
So you can imagine with all this freedom, everything is pretty much destined to go to hell, but with style. The city runs on a substance called ADAM which has the power to alter the DNA of a subject so that they may fire lightning out of their hands for example, or anything else of the sort, depending on how smart you are and what you want to do with it. With the great power ADAM gives, comes great responsibility and with human nature, you can pretty much guarantee that lessons in responsibility will be ignored. The more ADAM you use, the more dependant upon it you become and with this dependancy you have one hell of a market. This is where the Italian Mafia come in and with the Mafia you can guarantee a power struggle. It’s funny when you look at Bioshock’s setup from this angle; all you need to do is change the word ADAM to heroin, then the whole thing looks like an underwater drug war story – which it kind of is. By the time the character you play as arrives at Rapture, all your left with is the remnants of the conflict that existed before and the beauty of the ideals and the decay that now covers the city for you to indulge in.
Sure I could go into detail about everything that goes on in Bioshock, but either you already know what I’m talking about or you don’t but wish to experience it for yourself, which is how Bioshock is best experienced. Bioshock shouldn’t be known from hearing about it by some guy who thinks he knows what he’s talking about, but from playing through the game; because it’s when you do play through Bioshock that you can experience the masterpiece for yourself. No one can tell you how good it is, you need to play it.
Many would say that what makes Bioshock so amazing is the story. Nay says I. It’s the way in which it is told that makes it a marvel. If it weren’t for the load of diaries left by the residents of Rapture to help explain the workings of the city and how they crumbled, Bioshock would not be nearly as much of the narrative spectacle it is. It provides so many layers to the narrative that when ultimately the twist of the story slaps you in the face, you can’t help but relish in it as all the layers are brought together. Listening to the way people thought under the influence of Rapture’s society really does make it feel as if the city exists, and allows you to sympathise with the characters you meet in the game.
The environments add to the effect of a failed Utopia as well. The entire city feels heavy under the water that surrounds it and seeing the contrast between the beauty and the decay makes the city feel as if it’s falling apart as it is so often suggested. The entire atmosphere is generated by all the small things that sucks you into the whole experience. Watching the residents leftover from the civil war that occurred act in crazed and maniacal ways as they scavenge for scraps leaves you with an optimistic outlook, not just Rapture, but the world as a whole. How can society fall to such levels? How can people be so manipulated? What changes a man to the point of being crazed and psychotic? What lengths will people go to, to get what they want? Through the way a player can breathe in Rapture, the outcome is that Bioshock becomes its own world for the player to experience, bringing with it the themes that can be subconsciously learned. The fact that a game can tap in to this narrative spectrum and push the boundaries in what games are capable of when it comes to telling stories, it brings hope and standards to the media and can strike a chord with the player it’s engaging with.
Bioshock doesn’t really question your morals too much but rather lets you view a society where there are none and how life can’t be preserved. To produce ADAM naturally was financially unwise, so to produce it more rapidly it had to be grown inside infant females for some reason. To protect these “Little Sisters” from the dangers of Rapture’s society, they’re accompanied by giant bodyguards, encased in diving suits, known as Big Daddies. The Little Sisters can be found wandering around the ruins of Rapture scavenging corpses for left over ADAM.
After killing the Big Daddy that protects her you have a choice as a player: do you harvest the girl of all the ADAM she carries and kill her in the process? Or do you only gather some but save her from her torment and the sole purpose of manufacturing ADAM? So unless you’re a blight on this planet and feel thrilled at the thought of mass murdering little girls for your greater benefit, you’ll save the poor thing. The problem though is, this is the only choice you’re posed with in the entire game, and even then it’s optional. It’s too one sided; of course you’re going to save the girl. But what is really interesting though is watching the way Rapture’s society reacts. Watching a grown man beat the crap out of a little girl with the butt of his Magnum while you’re trapped behind reinforced glass is painful to watch, but that’s Rapture’s society, and it makes you realise how privileged we are that we don’t live in a society like it.
If there’s is anything that stops Bioshock from being “perfect” as a game as a whole it’s the gameplay. While there are some cinematic sequences that are on a par with Half-Life, they’re not as powerful and killing splicers over and over again only entertains so much. Sure there are enough ways of killing people to make Stalin seem sincere, but it starts to get old too quickly and ultimately too easy. If it weren’t for the thrill of some sequences that are thrown in every so often and the compelling story that held you by the balls for the most part of the game, Bioshock wouldn’t have the effect and longevity that it has. Though for $60 USD, I didn’t buy the game day one. Bioshock is a game you can really only play through once, but if you’re so impacted by it, then you will play it again or if you want a challenge, set it to hard difficulty and turn the Vita-Chambers off.
Bioshock is an instant classic for the gaming industry. I’ve never played a game this generation where the narrative has been the main focus and has been pulled off so relentlessly. Though it’s not a game where you feel you have to play a certain sequence again, it’s definitely a game where you feel compelled to play the entire thing over, to relive Rapture, find things you may have missed and get lost in it all.
Bioshock Review: Little Girls, Possessed Divers Suits and The Italian Mafia.
Over-the-top branding, cheesy smiles and hearty classical music. There’s something about revisiting the 40’s that still remains out of this world. Be it their belief in what today’s society would have been like or their taste in clothing, game developers seem fascinated with the retro look it provides. From the origin of the personal robot to the conceptualisation of a 50ft woman, the 40’s was where all the cool kids with the greasy hair were at. So it seems only fitting to revisit a time where ideas ranged from the plausible to the ridiculous and that anyone can make anything awesome. Bioshock is no different than any other game based in times of such lunacy. Since when, in any other time period, can a gargantuan possessed diving suit with a drill of all things attached to his hand that moans like a whale be plausible? Only in the 40’s of course.
It’s as if developers’ have an idea, but are not entirely sure what time period it should fit in. It can’t be in the present because we know what the present is like and what could be plausible. It can’t be in the future because it wouldn’t make sense to use something as encumbering as steel to use as a suit. “Just chuck it in the 40’s” some smart arse will say, because we all know what happened in the 40’s right? Wrong. There’s actually quite a bit we don’t know about the 40’s. I mean look at Wolfenstein, I never knew Hitler had chainguns for hands! It’s amazing what we can learn in games nowadays. Our history is rich with mysteries and if we don’t know what happened, why not invent the answers? Which adds a whole lot more depth than you’d think. No one knows what Nazi scientists were working on back in the day, so why not tell an interpretation of events with Wolfenstein? There’s nothing wrong with retelling history, plus, it’s more imaginative and restricting and if done well it creates an immersive experience. Which is why Bioshock is an interactive masterpiece.
So lets run a check list shall we? Bioshock, what gives it it’s unique feel? An underwater city to challenge Atlantis for the “Best City in the Atlantic” title? Check. Possessed diving suits and possessed little girls? Check. The Italian Mafia? Check. Yep, we’re in the 40’s. Although Bioshock is set in the 60’s, the underwater city of Rapture, built by the revolutionary Andrew Ryan, is locked in the 40’s. Created with the idea of housing the perfect society, a Utopia secluded beneath the waves, with a perfect society there’s always an asshole trying to ruin it; be it human nature or the Italian Mafia. Rapture was not only the conceptualised “perfect” society, but also the most unbound where “the artist need not fear the censor” and “the scientist need not fear petty morality”.
So you can imagine with all this freedom, everything is pretty much destined to go to hell, but with style. The city runs on a substance called ADAM which has the power to alter the DNA of a subject so that they may fire lightning out of their hands for example, or anything else of the sort, depending on how smart you are and what you want to do with it. With the great power ADAM gives, comes great responsibility and with human nature, you can pretty much guarantee that lessons in responsibility will be ignored. The more ADAM you use, the more dependant upon it you become and with this dependancy you have one hell of a market. This is where the Italian Mafia come in and with the Mafia you can guarantee a power struggle. It’s funny when you look at Bioshock’s setup from this angle; all you need to do is change the word ADAM to heroin, then the whole thing looks like an underwater drug war story – which it kind of is. By the time the character you play as arrives at Rapture, all your left with is the remnants of the conflict that existed before and the beauty of the ideals and the decay that now covers the city for you to indulge in.
Sure I could go into detail about everything that goes on in Bioshock, but either you already know what I’m talking about or you don’t but wish to experience it for yourself, which is how Bioshock is best experienced. Bioshock shouldn’t be known from hearing about it by some guy who thinks he knows what he’s talking about, but from playing through the game; because it’s when you do play through Bioshock that you can experience the masterpiece for yourself. No one can tell you how good it is, you need to play it.
Many would say that what makes Bioshock so amazing is the story. Nay says I. It’s the way in which it is told that makes it a marvel. If it weren’t for the load of diaries left by the residents of Rapture to help explain the workings of the city and how they crumbled, Bioshock would not be nearly as much of the narrative spectacle it is. It provides so many layers to the narrative that when ultimately the twist of the story slaps you in the face, you can’t help but relish in it as all the layers are brought together. Listening to the way people thought under the influence of Rapture’s society really does make it feel as if the city exists, and allows you to sympathise with the characters you meet in the game.
The environments add to the effect of a failed Utopia as well. The entire city feels heavy under the water that surrounds it and seeing the contrast between the beauty and the decay makes the city feel as if it’s falling apart as it is so often suggested. The entire atmosphere is generated by all the small things that sucks you into the whole experience. Watching the residents leftover from the civil war that occurred act in crazed and maniacal ways as they scavenge for scraps leaves you with an optimistic outlook, not just Rapture, but the world as a whole. How can society fall to such levels? How can people be so manipulated? What changes a man to the point of being crazed and psychotic? What lengths will people go to, to get what they want? Through the way a player can breathe in Rapture, the outcome is that Bioshock becomes its own world for the player to experience, bringing with it the themes that can be subconsciously learned. The fact that a game can tap in to this narrative spectrum and push the boundaries in what games are capable of when it comes to telling stories, it brings hope and standards to the media and can strike a chord with the player it’s engaging with.
Bioshock doesn’t really question your morals too much but rather lets you view a society where there are none and how life can’t be preserved. To produce ADAM naturally was financially unwise, so to produce it more rapidly it had to be grown inside infant females for some reason. To protect these “Little Sisters” from the dangers of Rapture’s society, they’re accompanied by giant bodyguards, encased in diving suits, known as Big Daddies. The Little Sisters can be found wandering around the ruins of Rapture scavenging corpses for left over ADAM.
After killing the Big Daddy that protects her you have a choice as a player: do you harvest the girl of all the ADAM she carries and kill her in the process? Or do you only gather some but save her from her torment and the sole purpose of manufacturing ADAM? So unless you’re a blight on this planet and feel thrilled at the thought of mass murdering little girls for your greater benefit, you’ll save the poor thing. The problem though is, this is the only choice you’re posed with in the entire game, and even then it’s optional. It’s too one sided; of course you’re going to save the girl. But what is really interesting though is watching the way Rapture’s society reacts. Watching a grown man beat the crap out of a little girl with the butt of his Magnum while you’re trapped behind reinforced glass is painful to watch, but that’s Rapture’s society, and it makes you realise how privileged we are that we don’t live in a society like it.
If there’s is anything that stops Bioshock from being “perfect” as a game as a whole it’s the gameplay. While there are some cinematic sequences that are on a par with Half-Life, they’re not as powerful and killing splicers over and over again only entertains so much. Sure there are enough ways of killing people to make Stalin seem sincere, but it starts to get old too quickly and ultimately too easy. If it weren’t for the thrill of some sequences that are thrown in every so often and the compelling story that held you by the balls for the most part of the game, Bioshock wouldn’t have the effect and longevity that it has. Though for $60 USD, I didn’t buy the game day one. Bioshock is a game you can really only play through once, but if you’re so impacted by it, then you will play it again or if you want a challenge, set it to hard difficulty and turn the Vita-Chambers off.
Bioshock is an instant classic for the gaming industry. I’ve never played a game this generation where the narrative has been the main focus and has been pulled off so relentlessly. Though it’s not a game where you feel you have to play a certain sequence again, it’s definitely a game where you feel compelled to play the entire thing over, to relive Rapture, find things you may have missed and get lost in it all.
Posted 1 year ago
